class consciousness

See synonyms for class consciousness on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. awareness of one's own social or economic rank in society.

  2. a feeling of identification and solidarity with those belonging to the same social or economic class as oneself.

Origin of class consciousness

1
First recorded in 1885–90

Other words from class consciousness

  • class-con·scious [klas-kon-shuhs, klahs-], /ˈklæsˈkɒn ʃəs, ˈklɑs-/, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

Cultural definitions for class consciousness

class consciousness

Identification with other members of one's own class and awareness of its relationship with other classes. According to Marxist theory, the proletariat (see also proletariat) will assume class consciousness when workers realize that they are being exploited by the bourgeoisie; then a proletarian revolution will be inevitable. Contrary to this theory, however, the American working class is primarily socially conservative.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.